Blackcollar

Allen Caine was too young to remember when the Earth had not been a conquered planet, one of many such in the huge and sprawling Rygril empire, but he knew of the legendary blackcollars, guerilla warriors trained to the limit of human speed and skill, then turned into nearly superhuman combatants by use of the now-lost backlash drug. Earth and its former colony worlds had been overwhelmed, but sparks of rebellion still smoldered, and the rebel underground on Earth had sent Caine on an undercover mission to the former Earth colony of Plinry, where there was a faint hope that a blackcollar unit still existed. The underground alone knew of a secret that might be humanity's ace in the hole. And if a remnant of blackcollar fighters still existed on Plinry, they were the only hope of playing that ace in a final bid for the freedom of humanity.

Publisher's Note: This book has appeared in parts as The Blackcollar and Blackcollar: The Backlash Mission. This is the first unified appearance of the complete book

Timothy Zahn is a Hugo Award-winner, and author of the New York Times best seller Heir to the Empire. Born in Chicago, he earned a B.S. in physics from Michigan State University and an M.S. in physics from the University of Illinois. He sold his first story to Analog in 1978, and immediately attracted attention as a new writer of science fiction based on real, cutting-edge science. Baen recently published his popular Cobra trilogy in one volume. His other popular series include the "Conqueror" and "Dragonback" novels. Zahn has written over twenty novels, including the recent works Angelmass and Manta's Gift.